Commentary

When's a good time to bring your Internet banking down for a routine software upgrade? How about halting audio response to move the system to a new server? Or those unpredictable but inevitable outages - like a disk crash or CPU failure. When's a good time for those events to...

Chances are your credit union looks different today than it did just five years ago. There are new faces, technology, products, procedures and maybe even new branch locations. With all of these operational changes, could it be possible your approach to training hasn't changed much? Maybe you've added a full-time...

We're living in a new world that is changing at a record pace. Business plans that were strategically aligned with the marketplace just a few years ago may now be largely obsolete. Products that once made good business sense to offer are now being challenged by fierce competition and intense...

Earlier in the year, those of us in the marketing community were busily discussing the impact of our current branding campaigns, customer relationship management programs and the like. Here at First South, we were analyzing the results of our annual membership survey. The marketing department was particularly proud to note...

New technologies continue to be released to consumers and businesses at a rapid pace, and as the technologies are adopted and prices fall, credit union executives may find themselves facing what can be called the "technology trap," which is purchasing technology for technology's sake. Conveniences such as online, real-time access...

Gene Artemenko died October 15. He was one of the greatest among credit union managers. Many tributes will be paid to his memory. I would like to add mine. Gene was my teacher, mentor and friend. In managing my own credit union operation, many of the things I did that...

Competing in today's auto finance market has become more challenging than ever before. Recent events have forced the automakers to provide dealerships with stronger incentives to help them sell vehicles. Who Are The Competition? As the new models are introduced in the fall months of every year, so are special...

In the wake of the current economic slowdown and disturbing international affairs, pessimism abounds in the business world. That attitude is spreading among some credit union leaders. As businesses become cautious during this time of turmoil, they tend to reduce capital expenditures, lay off people, and postpone expansions. They prefer...